MIDWAY

Well - there's always a 'story' where the Taylor's are involved. We flew back home from Florida today. Joelene and I had a great time.

We flew in and out of MIDWAY AIRPORT in Chicago this time, which we don't prefer because of the distance from home, but the ticket prices were too good to pass it up. Also, the flight left Florida this morning at 6 a.m., which is possibly another reason the price was so good. That meant we had to get up at 3 this morning to get ready to go by 4 a.m. to the airport in Florida. Brutal.

On the way, our driver (who shall remain nameless) realized the highway exit we needed to take to get to the airport terminal was CLOSED. Isn't it always the way? Of course, we were in a hurry and if we missed this last airport exit, it meant crossing a several-mile long bridge and having to double back with a schedule that was already very tight in order to arrive on time. Did I mention it was 4 in the morning? So our driver (who shall remain nameless) ended up squeezing the car in between the set-up traffic cones at the closed exit in order to ask the police officer sitting there in his squad car a question about what we should do now that the VERY IMPORTANT airport exit was closed.

Long story short, our driver (who shall remain nameless - but NO, it wasn't me) ended up getting a traffic citation for illegally crossing the traffic cones and venturing into 'restricted' area. I felt really bad and it seemed like authority overkill from the officer to me. We were just hoping to get information from him; we weren't trying to sneak our way into Forbidden Closed Highway Exit Land. But he was issued a citation nonetheless.

Once we got to the airport, we found out our flight was over-booked. We had scheduled a flight to Atlanta and then the second leg on to Midway. We had our tickets, but we couldn't get the automated seat assignment kiosk to work for Joelene. I had my seat for both flights, but she didn't have hers for the second leg.

So when we got to the gate in Atlanta, the ticket agent asked us, since the flight was over-full, if we would be interested in taking a slightly later flight to O'Hare in first class instead? HELLO?! YES! But that meant we'd have to take the "EL" from O'Hare to Midway, because our car was parked in long term parking at Midway. See how this works? It's never simple.

We decided we'd be adventerous and do it. At the very last second though, some people on the Midway flight didn't show up, and we were the last two people put on the original flight. BUT ... the ticket agent gave us two $200 vouchers for a future flight ANYWAY, just because we were WILLING! There's a sermon in there somewhere ... 'just because we were willing.'

So see? SOMETIMES thinks DO work out.

Now ... fresh off vacation ... since I've been up since 3 a.m. today, I'm dead tired. I'll see some of you tomorrow.

And be blessed.